Shining Path
The Shining Path, officially the Communist Party of Peru, is a far-left political party and guerrilla group in Peru, following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path to distinguish it from other communist parties in Peru.
When it first launched its "people's war" in 1980, the Shining Path's goal was to overthrow the government through guerrilla warfare and replace it with a New Democracy. The Shining Path believed that by establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat, inducing a cultural revolution, and eventually sparking a world revolution, they could arrive at full communism. Their representatives stated that the then-existing socialist countries were revisionist, and the Shining Path was the vanguard of the world communist movement. The Shining Path's ideology and tactics have influenced other Maoist insurgent groups, such as the Communist Party of Nepal and other Revolutionary Internationalist Movement-affiliated organizations.
The Shining Path has been widely condemned for its excessive brutality, including violence deployed against peasants, such as the Lucanamarca massacre, as well as for its violence towards trade union organizers, competing Marxist groups, elected officials, and the general public. The Shining Path is regarded as a terrorist organization by the government of Peru, along with Japan, the United States, the European Union, and Canada, all of whom consequently prohibit funding and other financial support to the group.
Since the capture of Shining Path founder Abimael Guzmán in 1992 and of his successors Óscar Ramírez in 1999 and Eleuterio Flores in 2012, the Shining Path has declined in activity. The main remaining faction of the Shining Path, the Militarized Communist Party of Peru, is active in the VRAEM region of Peru, and it has since distanced itself from the Shining Path's legacy in 2018 in order to maintain the support of peasants previously persecuted by the Shining Path. In addition to the MPCP, the Communist Party of Peru – Red Mantaro Base Committee has been operating in the Mantaro Valley since 2001, while the Communist Party of Peru – Huallaga Regional Committee was active at the Huallaga region from 2004 until Comrade Artemio's capture in 2012.
Name
The group's official name is the Communist Party of Peru, a name seen in all of its self-produced documents, periodicals, and other materials. The acronym PCP-SL is unofficially used by organizations, such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to distinguish the group from other groups who claim the original name and acronym.The group's common name, Shining Path, distinguishes it from several other Peruvian communist parties with similar names. The name is derived from a maxim of José Carlos Mariátegui, the founder of the original Peruvian Communist Party in the 1920s: "El Marxismo-Leninismo abrirá el sendero luminoso hacia la revolución". This maxim was featured on the masthead of the newspaper of a Shining Path front group. The followers of this group are generally called senderistas.
Structure
Organization
The Shining Path's remnants currently operate in the VRAEM region and primarily comprises two groups and their sub-branches; a [|paramilitary wing] and a [|political wing]. It was originally organised using a "concentric construction" model of structure with Communist Party organs as the complete center, followed by the paramilitary wing surrounding it, and lastly the political wing in the outermost circle. This ensured the political party retained control of both its armed and social branches, contrasting itself with the more frequent foquismo model that swept through Latin American insurgencies after the Cuban Revolution.The capture of Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán in 1992 led to the eventual splintering of the group into several factions, referred to by the Peruvian government as Shining Path remnants. Of these, the Militarized Communist Party of Peru is considered the group's main successor, founded in 1999 by brothers Víctor and Jorge Quispe Palomino after the collapse of Sendero Rojo, the faction that had rejected Guzmán's peace treaty. Also active is a faction in the Mantaro Valley since 2001. The group's remnants reportedly obtain their revenue from cocaine trafficking, and of these, the MPCP has attempted to recharacterise and distance itself from the original group that had attacked rural communities in the area, describing Guzmán as a "traitor".
Paramilitary wing
The People's Guerrilla Army was officially created on 3 December 1982 for the purposes of combat, mobilisation and producing an income for the group. After 1992, it continued to operate under Sendero Rojo, the group's armed successor until 1999, and later under the Huallaga faction that existed from 2004 to 2012. Since 2001, it has been operated by the Mantaro faction under the name of People's Liberation Army.The EGP's structure is as follows:
- Main Force : Mainly armed with larger weapons, such as the AKM and FN FAL rifles as well as the Heckler & Koch HK21 machine gun. Due to proficiency in armaments, this group is tasked with ambushing police and soldiers. They do not remain in locations, usually traveling across regions.
- Local Force : These members are local agricultural workers who are provided minor weapons and periodically assist FP members, then later return to their work. Skilled FL members are moved into the FP's ranks.
- Base Force : Some of the peasants of territories captured by the Shining Path are grouped into the FB, typically serving as reservists armed with handheld weapons such as knives, spears and machetes. FB members occasionally serve in surveillance tasks.
Under the leadership of Víctor Quispe Palomino, it was reorganised as the Popular Revolutionary Army until the MPCP's formal establishment and distancing from Guzmán's original Shining Path in June 2018, after which it has claimed the name of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Peru. In 2020, it was reported to have made money from selling cigarettes, clothes, candy, raffles and other methods.
Political wing
The United Front serves as the political and bureaucratic arm of the Shining Path that uses generated organisms, or civil organisations that support the group. It has two main branches, MOVADEF and FUDEPP, as well as a number of multiple smaller organisations, usually specified to a particular purpose or issue. Examples of these include:Ideology
As its power grew, the Shining Path changed its official ideology from "Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong thought" to "Marxism–Leninism–Maoism–Gonzalo thought" – according to some authors, a cult of personality grew around Guzmán.Ideologically Maoist, the Shining Path is unique because it did not completely accept orthodox Marxist doctrine, instead, it considered the teachings of Guzmán to supersede the teachings of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. Guzmán's philosophy combined Marxism–Leninism, Maoism and indigenous Indian traditionalism, championing the liberation of Peru's Quechua-speaking Incans and mestizos. The party's name was also coined by Guzmán, who infused his communist rhetoric with Inca mythology, he described his form of Marxist-Maoist thought as a "shining path" towards the liberation of Peru's natives. Because of this, the Shining Path also featured elements of Incan particularism, and it also rejected outside influences, especially non-indigenous influences.
The Shining Path declared that it was a feminist organization and in accordance with this declaration, many women acquired leadership positions. In the organisation, 40% of the fighters and 50% of the members of its Central Committee were women.
People's Republic
The Shining Path sought to replace the Republic of Peru with a "People's Republic which would adhere to the doctrine of New Democracy", also known by its proposed name of "People's Republic of Peru". The RPND was first named at the third session of the first central committee, held in 1983, with its establishment meaning that the armed branch of the group would become a "People's Liberation Army," as per the group's so-called grand plan. Additionally, the term "People's Republic" was also suggested as a possible name for the upcoming state.Use of violence
Although the reliability of reports regarding the Shining Path's actions remains a matter of controversy in Peru, the organization's use of violence is well documented. According to InSight Crime, Shining Path would kill their opponents "with assassinations, bombings, beheadings and massacres" as well as "stoning victims to death.The Shining Path rejected the concept of human rights; a Shining Path document stated:
After the collapse of the Fujimori government, interim President Valentín Paniagua established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the conflict. The Commission found in its 2003 Final Report that 69,280 people died or disappeared between 1980 and 2000 as a result of the armed conflict. The Shining Path was found to be responsible for about 54% of the deaths and disappearances reported to the commission. A statistical analysis of the available data led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to estimate that the Shining Path was responsible for the death or disappearance of 31,331 people, 46% of the total deaths and disappearances. According to a summary of the report by Human Rights Watch, "Shining Path... killed about half the victims, and roughly one-third died at the hands of government security forces... The commission attributed some of the other slayings to a smaller guerrilla group and local militias. The rest remain unattributed." The MRTA was held responsible for 1.5% of the deaths. A 2019 study disputed the casualty figures from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, estimating instead "a total of 48,000 killings, substantially lower than the TRC estimate", and concluding that "the Peruvian State accounts for a significantly larger share than the Shining Path." The TRC later came out to respond to these statements.